SPOUSE: RESTRAIN KASHI PEOPLE

Vero Beach Press Journal (FL)
May 8, 2001
Section: A section{LENGTH}
Medium
Page: A5

SPOUSE: RESTRAIN KASHI PEOPLE

JAYNE HUSTEAD PRESS JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Alleging death threats by members of the Kashi Ashram spiritual community in Roseland,
former community member Richard Rosenkranz is petitioning the court to keep his wife and
other members of the group away from him.

Meanwhile, his wife, Gina Rosenkranz, who still lives at the 11155 Roseland Road ranch, is
asking the court for more money for attorney and accountant fees and has hired a private
investigator to look into Richard Rosenkranz's alleged refusal to turn over documents about
the nonprofit organization he heads.

Rosenkranz, who said he moved off the ranch in July 1999 to be more independent, is
self-employed and serves as executive director of the Interfaith Call for Universal Freedom of
Worship and for Human Rights in Tibet. He also is president of the World Tibet Foundation. For
many years he was the Ashram's chief media spokesman.

Fort Lauderdale private investigator Wayne Black said Monday he has been working the
Rosenkranz case for several weeks. "Unfortunately, it's a typically unfriendly divorce," he said.

Florida is a no-fault divorce state and therefore it should be simple, Black said, "but this is sort of
strange."

Black said he thinks Rosenkranz is throwing up smoke screens by claiming foul play by the Kashi.

On the other hand, Stuart attorney Noel Bobko, who is representing Richard Rosenkranz along with
Vero Beach attorney Norman Green, said "there's no question Richard's life has been jeopardized."

In preparation for a two-day divorce trial, Green and Bobko have scheduled nine depositions of
current and former Kashi members between July 17 and 20, including the cult's spiritual leader Ma
Jaya Bhagavati on July 19.

Former Kashi member Sal Conti, who left the ranch in 1996 and moved up north, will be deposed
July 20. Conti has said he witnessed a beating of the Rosenkranzes' son, Chun, five years ago. The
assault on the then-13-year-old allegedly was done at the behest of Bhagavati.

In his motion, Richard Rosenkranz says since the decision to depose the cult members he and
Conti have been assaulted and threatened.

Rosenkranz's motion says he "has received numerous threats against him if he exposed the
malevolent inner workings of the Kashi Ashram cult."

The most recent threat was April 30 when a rock thrown at a window over his desk narrowly missed
his head, the motion states.

Rosenkranz further says "car tracks lead directly from his house to the River House, which is
owned and operated by certain members of the cult."

A day earlier, Rosenkranz claims in his motion, Conti found a dead fish wrapped in an Italian
newspaper on his upstate New York doorstep.

"No one's hurting anybody here," an outraged Gina Rosenkranz said Monday. "We don't live like
that," she said.

She accused Rosenkranz of making things up to make Kashi look bad. "He told me from the
beginning if I challenged the amount of support he wanted to pay he would take the Ashram down,"
she said.

Circuit Judge William Roby on Monday denied Rosenkranz's petition for an emergency order of
protection and set the matter for a hearing June 12.

"This is not (a domestic violence incident) where the husband and wife are standing next to each
other and threatening to kill each other," Bobko said. That type of situation normally is heard within
10 days, while others are left to the discretion of the court and the court has only so much
emergency hearing time, Bobko said.

Gina Rosenkranz's petition for more attorneys fees also will be heard June 12, unless her Vero
Beach attorney G. Russell Petersen can reach an out-of-court agreement with her husband and his
attorneys, Green's office said.